Graduate GPA and Med School

[bingy95]

So I finally got my grades for my MPH and my graduate gpa is 3.8. My undergraduate is 3.75 and my sGPA is like 3.5. So does my graduate gpa help me at all as far as applying to med school?

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[jtd2081]

I don't see why not. Definitely won't hurt you.

 

[Lurkvey]

A handful of med schools will take it into account (possibly including it in your last 60 +/- 30 credits for one of the GPAs adcoms will look at or adcoms will give your graduate GPA a little extra weight compared to undergrad GPA), but the overall general thought is it won't matter to adcoms unless it is low (sub 3.6 I believe is considered low by adcoms here, so you should be okay) since graduate classes tend to be easier than undergraduate classes (at least for MPHs and life sciences) and there tend to be quite a few free A classes.

So in general a graduate GPA can really only hurt you or do nothing/very little for you. ECs that you get from grad school like TA'ing, research/publishing, and internships will help much more for something like med school.

 

[piii]

No it won't help

 

[Catalystik]

So I finally got my grades for my MPH and my graduate gpa is 3.8. My undergraduate is 3.75 and my sGPA is like 3.5. So does my graduate gpa help me at all as far as applying to med school?

No. I've heard of only one MD program that takes MPH performance into account.

 

[Espressso]

No. I've heard of only one MD program that takes MPH performance into account.

Do you mind dropping the name of that school?

 

[Catalystik]

Do you mind dropping the name of that school?

Minnesota, as I recall.

 

[xffan624]

I did have programs comment on my grad school performance after a crappy uGPA. I think also a strong MCAT helped as well to solidify that one's uGPA is not reflective of one's academic potential. I will say I think I validated their faith. I failed one test in my entire medical school career to date. It was a close fail and it was right after my ex had left me with no notice. I still passed the course overall fine.

 

[starspells]

As gonnif said it would help show a pattern of commitment to public health but it doesn't help remediate a weak gpa but you don't have that problem anyway.

 

[Catalystik]

So I finally got my grades for my MPH and my graduate gpa is 3.8. My undergraduate is 3.75 and my sGPA is like 3.5. So does my graduate gpa help me at all as far as applying to med school?

Having an MPH is more likely to prove an asset when applying to residency programs.

 

[Goro]

I would like to add to my learned colleague's comments by mentioning that when I'm reviewing an applicant's file, I simply can't determine the rigor of courses like "Disparities in Public Health" or "Women's Health in the Third World".

Anatomy, Physiology, Histology, I can wrap my mind around.

Particularly, an MPH GPA will not help support a weak sGPA. There is historical reasons for such. Prior to proliferation of postbacs and SMPs, about 15-20 years, there was a trend of weaker applicants to use MPH programs to bolster their applications. This rather mushroomed between 2000-2005 or so when applicant pools started to grow. The trend was noticed by many adcoms and thus weakened the overall impact of MPH programs. So while completing an MPH will be seen as an accomplishment, unless it is accompanied by other evidence showing motivation and commitment in public health, it wont have a tremendous impact.